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2010-02-02 - Jackpot
Jenny Stavros is in a bit of a quandary. Basically, she's spent the last few months trying to track down Emma Frost by her own devices. Even with her luck powers, this has proven somewhat problematic. After all, she doesn't exactly trust the Hellfire Club. Her friends and classmates are all either vaporized or similarly lost, and Emma is definitely not in the Boston area anymore. Therefore, she has finally bitten the bullet and elected to come to the one man she is certain will know where Ms. Frost has gone; assuming Ms. Frost is even alive, that is. So here she is. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. She's fought the student body here enough times as one of the Hellions to know where and what this place is. She's wearing her street clothes, because lucky or unlucky there's no way she's strutting into the X-Mansion in her Hellion costume. She guesses she'll ask where Xavier's office is, and try to... schedule an appointment, or something. Emma Frost, meanwhile, basically spent the lionshare of the last several months under the care of discrete, well-paid physicians; despite the spontaneously manifested body of diamond that saved her life, she still sustained some injury. Also, much more pressingly, her very expensive cosmetic work was damaged, which required some correcting. When the gate buzzer outside goes off, Emma is inside, watching a closed circuit monitor as a small team of students run through drills in the Danger Room. By the time it's clear that nobody /else/ is going to answer the thing, she hurries to the Mansion's ground level. By the time the gates swing open to admit Jenny onto the driveway leading up to the Mansion's doorstep, she's a bit too occupied with retrieving a brandy bottle to refill the snifter she's been carrying around to actually, say, greet Jenny, but the door is kind of ajar. It's /like/ a welcome. Jenny opens the door, stepping inside entirely prepared to be harrassed by the do-gooders she's spent so many years fighti-- "Oh my God, Ms. Frost?!" Her mouth is agape, her jaw dropped; not only is her mentor alive, as hoped, but finding her proved way easier than expected. "Oh my God, you're alive!" She runs toward Emma, dropping her purse in her excitement though she doesn't seem to notice. Emma is caught mid-pour by Jenny's shriek and charge; fortunately, she is able to quickly turn and meet the exuberant girl with both arms up to keep the glass and bottle clear; any alcohol being spilled on her immaculate white pantsuit would have probably made it impossible to properly appreciate the moment. The surprise does catch her off-guard enough that a sheath of bluish-white organic diamond races to coat her flesh; by the time Jenny's close, she's twinkling like mad and frowning thinly to boot. "Jenny," she murmurs, her voice falling into what is probably a familiar balance between 'elation' and 'annoyance for having her drinky time interrupted'. After she's squinted down at the girl for a second or two, though, her tone rises into genuine surprise: "Wait. /Wait/. /Jennifer/?!" "Oh God I thought I was the only -one-. I thought it was... I haven't been able to find -anyone-, and nobody in Boston could help and it was like it was all just... just -gone-." Jenny is stammering and trying not to cry and embracing Emma tightly around the waist even though she has probably never, ever dared to hug Emma Frost before. Because who would? Still, she's clutching tightly for a moment before she realizes Emma is a giant gemstone person. Glancing up, a little bit teary, Jenny looks confused. "Is that... what happened to you? Is that why you didn't die in the explosion?" "Yes," Emma mutters as she stares down at Jenny. Most people would sort of tense up when confronted with strange, unexpected shows of affection; considering that Emma is currently diamond-hard, though, it would be kind of moot, so she has to kind of awkwardly bend at the knees to set her bottle and glass down so that she might press the thumb and forefinger of either hand to Jenny's wrists. "Jennifer, darling," she mutters as she pries the girl's arms from around her body with deceptive strength. "You are running the risk of /ruining/ several thousand dollars worth of Italian craftsmanship." As soon as she's freed, an exhalation of relief escapes her. "For heavens' /sake/, Jennifer, those are /tears/ on your cheeks, I--" A moment passes as she once again sighs and her skin softens. "I imagined you all /dead/," she mutters as she pulls a hand away to pinch the bridge of her nose. "How in /blazes/ are you something other than an attractive outline of soot and sorrow?" There's a moment's pause, and then Jennifer composes herself. She's really good at composing herself. "Sorry, I... gawd, I probably wrecked my eyeliner. You know I don't..." Cry, she doesn't say. Sniffling a tiny bit, she does her best to smile. "I think everyone is dead besides me," she admits, looking a bit crestfallen. "I... she saw it in the cards, that we were going to die, and she told me, and so I... you know, I made a wheel." Jenny makes a broad gesture with her hands. "A really, really big Wheel of Fortune, a red one, and I just, just threw it down in the common room. And then when -- when it happened, I just... I got knocked out the window, and I was unconscious for a while but then I kind of wandered into town dazed. By the time I got back there was... nothing was there, nothing at all. Ms. Frost, I just... I should have made -everyone- lucky enough to escape. I feel so responsible that we... I'm just so -glad- you're all -right-!" Emma adroitly conceals the tiny outward movement of her thumbs intended to brush over the corners of her eyes and catch what minute moisture's beginning to build there, while Jenny composes, and then her arms fall in a cross over her chest. It's probably familiarly imperious posture. And then, you know, her fingers end up right back on the bridge of her nose and her eyes squeeze shut. Sympathy, as it turns out, is kind of an irksome feeling to have to put up with. "Yes, well, there there, you did what you could," she mutters as soon as Roulette has finished speaking. Her free hand is held up and fanned towards Jenny in kind of a 'settle down' gesture, and the word 'could' is actually neutral instead of a verbal slap of some kind. "You survived, /I/ survived; best to keep what's truly important in mind, rather than sobbing for what's out of your reach." "Yes... yes. You're right. I just hope that, you know. I hope maybe some of the others got lucky, too. It's all my power's good for, it'd be a shame if it crapped out the one time we needed it most. But I don't know, I'm trying not to get my hopes up. I mean, I wasn't even sure I'd be able to find -you- alive, I just thought... I thought if anyone could find you, it was Professor X-asperating and his little band of freaks." It is good to see Jenny has retained her kindness toward the less fortunate. "And here you are! Oh, Ms. Frost, I'm so happy you're alive!" Following a little sound of dismay, Emma's eyes crack open and she allows, "Who knows; perhaps Sharon's in the midst of an amnesia-induced stint as some sad old nouveau rich woman's queer violet house cat as we speak," with equal parts sarcasm and the best impression of caring reassurance that she can muster. Following a moment of exasperated consideration, she takes her hand from her nose to lay it gently on Jennifer's cheek. "I am proud of you:" she quietly says, "you acted ably and confidently under the great pressure. You preserved your life as best as you were able; I could ask no more of a student of -mine- under such circumstances." After taking her hand away, she briefly licks her lips and re-folds her arms over her chest. "Now. Much as I -deserve- it, and as much as I won't mind if the mood takes you in the future: you may curtail your gushing for the nonce. It won't /do/ when we are before that small, hairless man and his desperate misfits." Jenny laughs darkly at that, and it seems to snap her out of her overflowing emotional weepy joy and back into business-as-usual mode. Still, it was nice to have that moment. "I'm -not- wearing anything as Roulette but my Hellion uniform. I've kept it with me and I don't care if they shout at me to start wearing a big garish X." She puts her hands on her hips, smirking haughtily. "Are you planning to stay here a while? I mean, it's as good a place as any, I guess, if... I mean, Mr. Shaw is pissed at us, yeah? I kind of figured I shouldn't go to him for help finding you." "Sebastian Shaw is a demented autocrat too afraid of the concept of an independent woman to express himself in any /healthy/ fashion," Emma smoothly says. "So yes, you were wise to /avoid/ him." After scooping her drinkin' materials back up - and pouring herself a long overdue snifterful of brandy - she adds, "I've every intention of staying here, for now, yes; they are very -useful- misfits. I should think with all their talk of 'dreams' and 'freedom', they shan't insist on stomping out your right to textile expression, dear." "I just want to keep our team alive, even if it's just, you know, me. I don't trust these people," Jenny says. "They're goody-goodies and they've got their heads full of all kinds of crap pipe dreams. But I mean, I dunno. If you want to stay, I'll stay too. I mean... it's not like I'm gonna go back home to Jersey." That would never happen, ever, is the implication. "I wanna be with you." The corners of Emma's mouth twitch upwards; she can't quite help herself, what with her prized pupil being a.) alive and b.) just as devoted as ever. If her hands weren't full she might even lay a hand on Jenny's shoulder to share a brief moment of actual affection, or something, but they are, so she just downs a big mouthful of brandy instead; the smile has slipped away by the time the alcohol's swallowed. "They scarcely deserve us, Jennifer darling, but I am /certain/ that they need us, even if they aren't aware of it," she confidently says. "You and I--we can show them something more than their mad wishes and juvenile fancy." After a beat, she's smiling again, albeit in a far more predatory fashion. "There is but one bald, crippled man and an overbearing redhead to stand in your way, but I am certain that they'll not be an obstacle to you." "Ugh, do I have to convince them to let me stay? That's stupid. Why wouldn't they want me?" Jenny shakes her head. "I'm totally better than the freakos they've got here. What are they gonna do, tell me I'm too pretty? I guess if I have to talk to them I could just like, palm a luck wheel beforehand." Laughing richly, Emma turns sharply 'round and leads the way into the Mansion. "They will want you; you are bright, powerful, resourceful and thanks to me, very well borne; they'll just need to -understand- that they want you. They're just a bit touchy when it comes to people who've scouted and skirmished with their students, is all; rather like primary coloured gangsters, very territorial and vindictive, deep down." Emma's razor-edged smile is turned over her shoulder to Jenny. "I'm so very glad you've found your way here, Jennifer; it shall be quite the relief to know I'll have -one- student that I can count on." "You can always count on me, Ms. Frost!" Roulette says, almost too excitedly. She calms down a little bit, then. It really won't do to keep losing her cool; she's just really freakin excited, okay? "What do you think I should do? I mean, do you want to talk to them first? Or should I, I don't know... really I've uh. Never applied to a school before. Obviously. I mean if you think I should even be a student. I could just... keep training with you." "/That/, I am afraid, will still need to be determined," Emma says with a distasteful wrinkling of her carefully sculpted nose. Probably, hopefully, it's because of the whole 'having to jump through more hoops' thing and not the whole 'Jenny randomly squealing like a nineteen year old girl' thing. "I am only a /guest/, thus far, but I've every intention of speaking with Xavier at the next opportunity to change that." After a beat, she offers, "You may join me, if you like; charming he and his pet redhead would, I'm sure, be an educational experience in and of itself. I shall insist upon your remaining either way, of course." "Yes, of course. I don't mind just training with you, if they don't want me in the classes. I mean... what can they teach me that you couldn't, anyway? It's not like you didn't train us all by yourself at the Academy." Jenny shrugs a little, non-committally. "Whatever helps you out, though, I'll do. It's no sweat."